A proposal to move smokers farther from city buildings in Warren apparently hasn’t gone up in smoke.

The City Council has scheduled an Oct. 15 study session to discuss an ordinance, spearheaded by Mayor James Fouts, prohibiting smoking within 100 feet of municipal facilities, including city hall, police headquarters, district court and the Warren Community Center.

“No Smoking” signs that Fouts directed the Department of Public Works to make have already been erected outside several buildings. At the 37th District Court, Chief Judge John Chmura had the signs removed because he said no local law exists to support such a ban.

Fouts criticized the judge’s reaction and countered by offering the measure drafted by the city’s legal department. Violators would face a $75 fine for the first offense, and a $500 fine and up to 90 days in jail for continuing to smoke after being told to stop.

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On Sept. 11, council members voted 4-3 to table the proposal.

A 100-foot restriction including City Square Park would impact many popular activities at the civic center, including the popular ice rink; Warren’s annual Birthday Bash, which includes a carnival; outdoor concerts; and weekend farmers market.

“The ordinance, the way they have it written, says tobacco. Does that mean hookah pipes?” Councilman Scott Stevens said Monday.

He said the primary reason he recommended the postponement was to determine if a ban – from any distance – can be enforced.

Stevens, who said he smoked for more than 30 years but kicked the habit a second time about five years ago, feels that the mayor seems to be “rushing” the proposed ban.

“It needs to be looked at. It really does,” the council secretary added.

Fouts told The Macomb Daily on Monday that he was striving for a way that people, especially those with lung and heart disease, could avoid having to endure secondhand smoke before entering city buildings.

“I didn’t want to go the route of bureaucracy and red tape. I wanted to go the route of common courtesy,” he said.

The mayor, who introduced multiple anti-tobacco measures during his 26 years as a councilman, said he was not aware of the council’s upcoming study session. Fouts said he suggested the signs after a recent increase in complaints from non-smokers entering city hall.

Among them was Warren resident Patrick Simms, 81. Simms said he approached Fouts approximately four weeks ago and requested that smokers be moved farther from the doors of city buildings. Simms said he visits city hall approximately four times a week, mostly to use the Civic Center main library.

He said library patrons and Warren employees take smoking breaks just outside one of the entrances.

“I am annoyed that I have to walk through a cloud of smoke and then I come home and smell like a goat. I’ve had to do this on numerous occasions,” said the retiree, formerly of California.

Simms said he was pleased that the council did not immediately reject the proposed local law, but is not optimistic that the 100-foot rule will pass.

“The people in the region are not quite ready for something like this,” he said.

“I never predict what council members will do,” said Fouts, who admitted he was “somewhat shocked” that the council delayed a decision on the ordinance.

Michigan law prohibits smoking in government buildings. In recent years, Warren council members often took a brief recess during their regular meetings that usually went past midnight and occasionally ended after 2 a.m. During those breaks, some council members lighted up just a few steps from the doors of the Warren Community Center.